ANTICIPATION

Hey there.

It's a new day of the New Year and I'm anxious.

What am I anxious about, you ask? Getting Testimony of Innocence off to my publisher. I finished it right before Christmas... the completed story and the rewrites and corrections, but a dear lady offered to read it one time through for those easily skipped typos that we (me as the writer, and my critique partners as the two who have combed through it several times for me) don't always catch. How can we miss them? Easily. We know the story and know what I mean to write, only our human brain sometimes picks up the words the way they were meant to be written. It was bad timing on my part, giving the manuscript to an unsuspecting sweet woman, and ask for it back around or before the first of the year. How dare me? I'm so bad! It was with a kind heart Charlotte offered to do this for me (plus she's an avid fan of Deborah Lynne novels). But I guarantee she hadn't planned on me dropping it in her lap, so-to-speak, right before Christmas.

I'm sorry Charlotte. I didn't mean to do this.


Other writers know when you write something, it takes a lot of time and love to see it through from the beginning to the end--But once you are so close it's like waiting 9 months for a baby to be born. Then the pain starts. Well I guess you could say, that's where I am. IT WILL ALL BE WORTH IT IN THE END. On my part anyway. Thank you Charlotte. I can't say it enough. Thank you Marie and Emy too. They put a lot of their time into reading and rereading my work. I am so blessed! Thank You, Lord, for these people in my life!

Okay. Now I'm going to get off of me and onto the past week. I hope you have had a wonderful holiday time and are now ready to face the new year, doing what you have been called to do. Each day is new and opportunities are all around us. Don't hesitate to reach out and take hold of the experiences God has in store for you.

We started a new Bible Study last night. Of course it's another Beth Moore. How can you ask? Yes we do some that aren't hers, but when we can we do a Beth Moore Bible Study...even the ones she rewrites. We did the old and now are doing the newer version. She writes so full of the Spirit of the Lord, helping me and others understand God's Word so much clearer. Beth helps us to step into our own relationship with God, knowing He is there for us, in the good and the bad times. He will not only see us through our situations, but He will bless us too. I know that from one of the first Scriptures she (Beth) had us memorize.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6


And He does. For those of you who don't know Him personally yet, it's never to late to ask Him into your heart. He's there waiting for you, seeking you, wanting to dwell with you. Isn't that awesome?

Okay. I'm not preaching, just sharing.

On January 1...the first day of the new year...I did something I had never done before. I cooked a traditional southern New Year's Day meal. It's ham, cabbage, and black-eyed peas. Of course all my life I thought that was a worldwide tradition, representing health, wealth, and something else. I can't ever remember the third thing. I can recall saying years ago, "I guess I'm happy with my health and what ever my financial situation was, because there was no way on this earth I'd eat cabbage or black-eyed peas." I mean even when we lived payday-to-payday. I thought about it, but decided I was never that desperate. Of course all you who love cabbage and black-eyed peas, bless you. And as you know from the paragraph before, I know where my health and wealth comes from.

Anyway, I did it. Scott's best friend Jerry brought over a head of cabbage because Scott told him we could cook that traditional meal. (that was said around midnight New Year's Eve, after watching the glorious display of fireworks in the sky welcoming the New Year).  Ha-ha. WE?? He meant, they could watch the game and Debbie would make it. I told him I had no idea how to cook cabbage. He said, pull a recipe of the Internet. You're a good cook. You can do it. Well, I did just that when Jerry got to the house. Talk about poor planning. I pulled up the top rating recipe for boiled cabbage and ham, jotted down the necessary ingredients. Most of them I had, but still needed the ham and the black-eyed peas. In my mind, I planned on buying a can of those peas, so that wouldn't be a problem. Yeah, right. New Year's day? Down here in Louisiana go to the market and see how many stores still have cans on the shelf. I did find the fresh dried beans in a pack--and I knew how to cook red beans. I guessed it couldn't be very different. And I bought a portion of a ham, 3 oz without the bone and got to work.

By 2PM they were gobbling down the meal and talking about how good it was. Yes. They ate it and loved it...not me. I don't eat that stuff but was glad to know I could make it.

So New Year's day our New Orleans Saints won 45 to 17, and the men ate a hearty lunch. Then they watched another game or two and then ate left overs for supper (dinner). What did I do beside cook? I read a book and then watched a movie. That is my favorite thing to do when I'm not writing. Read something someone else has worked hard writing, or watching something that someone else wrote as a screen play. God gave us good imaginations. Look at the world today. We have so much of every thing, everywhere. Why? Because someone imagined and then put their hands to building or making or writing it until it existed. Yeah!!

It looks like I'm going backwards again. New Year's Eve. Fireworks, parties, family, friends. I hope you all had a safe and fun New Year's eve night to bring in the New Year. Where we just moved to, they had a neighbor hood party and we were invited. Not knowing many except to say hello, we old folks chose to welcome the new year at home with just the one friend, Jerry. But it was a great night. I mentioned earlier the fireworks we saw. Most of them came from the neighborhood party, and another little party from across the lake. It was great watching them yet being far enough away that the smoke didn't effect Scott from being able to enjoy them too. You could see the clouds of smoke in the air. I've never thought about those men or women who light those beautiful fireworks on the levee from a boat, how they must have been surrounded by the thick smoke. I hope their lungs made it through.

2012 is here. I hope all of you enjoy it and make the most out of every day. Stay loving others. Keep smiling. Bring joy to those around you. Stay happy!! What was that old saying...don't worry, be happy. That is the way to live your life. God tells us not to worry but to bring everything to Him in prayer. So He tells us the same thing...and guess who said it first! :-)



writing tips:

The following tips I learned through a class I took on line with ACFW. I'm only sharing a few tips here on punctuation which was given to us by Kathy Ide - author & editor.

Commas, periods, apostrophes, quotation marks, dashes and ellipsis, and hyphens:

COMMAS are used when restating a noun, example - My husband, Scott, ate the cabbage.

Scott is not necessary in the sentence, but it reminds you of his name. It can be removed without changing the meaning of the sentence, therefore, put commas.

When clarifying the noun commas are not used -  My daughter Rachael is thirteen months older than her sister.  By the sentence you can tell I have more than 1 daughter and by stating Rachael I am clarifying which daughter I was speaking of.

PERIODS are used separating sentences. The rule used to be the period was followed by two spaces. Now the rule is one space following a period at the end of a sentence. When using (parenthesis) within a sentence the period follows (the closing parenthesis). Same with a (question mark)?

APOSTROPHES are used to show ownership. Example - Molly's boys, Scotty and Koby, are my grandchildren. When it comes to names like Chris or Matthews, the rules very so check with your publishing house. The 15th Edition of the Chicago Manual of Style says (Chris's wife, Rosie, is adorable) words ending with the eez sound should get the added s, where as The 16th Edition of the Chicago Manual of Style says no extra s is needed. (Chris' wife, Rosie, is adorable.) The Christian Writer's Manual of Style agrees with the 16th Edition of the CMoS. So when writing for Christian publication do not use the added s. Another time apostrophes are used is when letters or numbers are omitted. An example of that would be don't for do not...omitting the o. Or the '80's for the 1980's. Another time apostrophes are used is when pluralizing a lower case letter. Example is...mind your p's and q's. However we don't use them when saying "no ifs ands or butts about it" even though it looks weird.

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I've got to stop here for a while. Scott gets a chest scan today, so I'll continue when we get back. We love his doctors. They are taking such good care of him.

I'm back. I have a confession to make. I've been back almost an hour but I started working on my completed manuscripts final corrections. Charlotte finished and I picked it up. Thanks again Charlotte.

Now I'm forcing myself to set it aside and complete my blog. Thank you for your patience.

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Closing QUOTATION MARKS follow the period, question mark, exclamation mark, or comma. Example - My husband uses a saying my son-in-law, Pete, a bloke from England, taught him. "Bob's your uncle and Fannie's your aunt." "Do you like that saying?" "Scott loves it!" 


The exception to the rule is rare, but here is one. What gives them the right to claim, "Your characters are flat"?

DASHES & ELLIPSIS - Ellipses...are used for fragmented speech, usually accompanied by confusion, insecurity, distress, or uncertainty.  Example - "My glasses...where did I put them?" That's a common question I ask myself a lot. And like on the commercial, I (not the cat) find them on my head. Another time to use ellipses is at the end of a dialogue when the person's voice fades off.  "I hope I'm not too..."
Dashes (typed as two or three hyphens) are used to break a train of thought or an abrupt change in sentence structure. Chris can save the day--but will he be in time? Dashes are also used to show a person's dialogue being interrupted. "Boys, don't jump on the--" A crash from the other room quickly cut off her words.

HYPHENS - Compound modifiers containing nouns, adjectives, and participles are hyphenated when they are followed by a noun. Writing a novel is a time-consuming project.  But hyphens are not used when no noun follows. Writing a novel is time consuming.

Kathy Ide cleared a lot of things up for me on the class she taught through ACFW. I wrote these tips from my notes, and hopefully you will find them helpful. I still make some mistakes in my writing, but hopefully not too many on my punctuation. Thanks Kathy.

Take care, and God bless you all!!

A Bright New Day

Good morning everyone. Today is another glorious day God has given us. I don't know about the weather around your home, but down here in the south we've been blessed with perfect weather. Love the cool breezes and the clear skies.

For the record, The Louisiana Book Festival that was held this past Saturday, was filled with people, fun, food, music, and so much more. Again, the weather was perfect. I hope all of you who live Louisiana way, were able to make it out there. Those of us who are called to write, when we begin we feel we are all alone, but let me tell you there were so many authors at the festival it took many tents to have covers for our tables to house us all. Some were even sitting out in the beautiful sunlight, soaking it in as they met readers of our books. Let me fill you in on a little secret. Meeting you readers is a joy and highlight in our lives. As much as we love getting lost in our writing, whether it is truth or fiction, we love the one-on-one contact we have with you. So thank you all who made my day and other authors like me. :-) I hope you had as much fun as we did.

A quick update on my family life-- Our oldest daughter (who lives in California) will be flying in Saturday to spend almost 2 weeks with us. Our baby, our son, is getting married 11/11/11 and Rachael is coming in early for it. We are so excited. And I got word this morning she is 4 tenths of a pound away from reaching her goal of losing 45 pounds before coming home. She'll make it!! Our middle daughter, Molly, is enjoying a visitor from England. Her husband’s stepdaughter flew in to America. She planned to spend some time with friends in New York, but took several days out of her trip to fly down here and meet her dad's wife. They were waiting to tell her the good news of the baby-on-the-way. I think Molly & Pete will be celebrating their 3rd wedding anniversary in February. What better way, then by planning a new child in their lives? Remember that old movie, Yours, Mine & Ours? And of course, the remake. Anyway we have our own personal experience with that. Loving it and looking forward to the OURS. Boy or girl??? We don't know yet. But we all look forward to which ever...it may even be one of each. My husband is a twin. :-) Last but not least, Chris, our son, and Rosie, our future daughter-in-law have been busy working while trying to finish up on the last few things involved in their wedding plans. 11/11/11 is right around the corner. We are sooooo excited.

The closing of our house of 20 years and passing it on to the next owner, is right around the corner. We love our home God blessed us with and we pray the new owner will find as much peace and joy as we've had. Most people who come to visit, when they sit in the living room comment on the peace they feel in our home. I love that. It's the peace from God and we know it. I prayed about 30 years ago for this home and God answered the prayer 20 years ago. Wait on God, and it's always the right thing. The only reason we're moving on is to downsize and we believe this is God's will for us. Our new home is gorgeous, sits on the edge of a lake, and it’s a small community of houses. Beautiful houses. We are being blessed again and we know the peace is coming with us!! Praise God!!

Writing tips for today:

When I first got started writing, I had written 5 novels before ever sending out a query letter. I never thought about selling my manuscripts. I wrote them for the pleasure it brought me...never thinking others could enjoy them (except my mom and our dear friend, Rhonda). When I was encouraged to try to get published and I sent out my first query letter, the response came that they would love to see the first three chapters and an outline of my manuscript. The first three chapters were easy, but an outline?? How do you take a 50000 - 60000 word count manuscript and turn it into a 3-page outline. That was hard, let me tell you. But I did it, and after a very long wait, I was rejected. Why? Because I did a lot of head hopping. 

What is that? It's the way they used to write so the reader knew what every character was thinking as they spoke. It is the omnipotent way. But TODAY we write in a certain character or characters Point Of View--POV for future references. Writers either right in the main character's POV in first person (I this, or I that) or they write in 3rd person (he or she did, blah blah blah). When you write in 3rd person, you can stay in the main characters POV or you can occasionally go to another characters POV but you have to do it in block form. The best thing is when writing a scene you determine who's POV you need to be in. If writing a mystery, sometimes you'll want to write in the killers POV without giving away who he/she is, but you want to get some of the killers thoughts across to the reader, usually increasing the tension or fear. You can also write in 1st person with the occasional 3rd person chapter. The first I ever saw this was when reading a James Patterson suspense novel. One short chapter here and there was in the killer’s head. Later I noticed in Sue Grafton novels as well. They do a wonderful job of it. The main thing to remember, when writing and you want to have more than one POV in a scene, remember to block it out, and be in the character who best grows the story, keeping it moving forward. Don't hop back and forth. Give your character either a chapter to his/her self and when its within another chapter give them several paragraphs, maybe even a few pages...which is what I mean by blocking it out.

Another thing I learned with my first rejection and a few more rejections later (of course I learned it over 10 years later) is when a publisher rejects you and gives you specific reasons they rejected it, take time to fix those things and then resubmit. I was told once you are rejected, they’d never look at it again. But a published author, whom was getting an autographed copy of her book, told me that wise piece of wisdom. Basically we want to learn from our rejections and grow as a writer. So keep on writing and keep on growing.

Till next week, have a blessed time. By the way, I've been emailed by several who have tried to become a follower on my blog, but for some reason it hasn't allowed anyone...yet my iPhone tells me people have started following. I don't see any comments or people showing yet, but I'll get with my web-master, Moore by Design, and get that remedied. Hopefully quickly, but don't give up trying. I'll let you know more next week.